Electric bicycles having pedal support are generally two-, three- or four-wheeled vehicles equipped with pedal cranks and an electric motor as electric drive unit. These electric bicycles, also called pedelecs, cannot be driven exclusively by the electric drive unit, but rather also always need a certain drive power that a cyclist has to apply by means of the pedal cranks. The electric drive unit is accordingly a support motor and drives the electric bicycle only if the cyclist also contributes his/her part thereto.
Shift decisions of an automatic shift mechanism for bicycles or for systems which read out a speed of the vehicle and display corresponding shifting up or shifting down on a display—where the shifting up or down would be accomplished manually—are typically based almost exclusively on the vehicle speed and the pedal frequency of the cyclist in order to keep the latter in the range of a “comfort” value for the cyclist. From the view point of the cyclist, however, significantly higher demands are placed on electric bicycles. Since an electric bicycle is generally equipped with an electronic subsystem having, inter alia, a motor, power electronics and one or more batteries, the cyclist expects not only traveling comfort with regard to a preferred pedal frequency, but also for example a long lifetime of the electrical system with regard to a possible maximization of range with the available battery power.
Automatic shift mechanisms have been designed hitherto in such a way that they take a gear selection decision and perform shifting independently and disregarding a possible installation and an electronic assistance system of the bicycle. With regard to manual shifting the problem barely differs since a cyclist generally takes his/her shift decision independently of the electrical energy consumption.